MIRAGE

Behold — the world is a mirage; nothing here is permanent.
(sggs 461).
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A lonely traveler in a parched and hot desert, nearly dying of thirst, sees
a broad stream of water. Seen in deserts, this mirage is a strange phenomenon
of illusion — a trick of our vision. Upon seeing the mirage on the hot sand,
an interesting thing happens: the mind's misapprehensions multiply, and it begins
to see the waters of the mirage at a close distance, moving like a river, having
waves, and even the sun reflecting on the water surface! The deluded mind then
goes in that direction, lured on and on, but finds nothing at all. The traveler
dies in protracted agony.

To see water-pools in the mirage is delusion of the ignorant mind; for the
mirage is nothing but rising hot air which gives the seer an illusion of real
sheet of water. Just as the mirage appears to be a real stream of water, similarly,
this mirage-like world creation also appears to be real to a deluded mind. In
other words, the materiality of the creation is like the mirage or pie in the
sky; an illusory projection of one's deluded mind. To hammer this truth into
our head, the parable of mirage has repeatedly been used in the scriptures and
in the teachings of the Spiritual Teachers.

Also called "Marig Triashnaa", "Harichandauree",
"Thagg Neeraa" and "Gandharba Nagree" in the
Gurbani (sggs), specifically this mirage-analogy is intended to make us understand
the following points: (a) the pleasures of this world are like a mirage, hence
false; and (b) the mirage like world-appearance cannot exist independent of the
Infinite Consciousness, Waheguru, who is free from all modifications and thereby
unaffected by them.

To put it otherwise, in the language of our parable, the mirage rejects Reality
which shows us the Truth, and deceives us with falsehood. We are like the traveler
illusioned by a mirage. The Truth which we rejects is always within us; however,
in ignorance, we accept the mirage-like appearance of the world as Reality,
and then keeps chasing it to our destruction!

Pure Consciousness cannot be conditioned; because it's infinite and subtler
than the subtlest, therefore beyond the influence of material contamination.
As revealed in the declarations of the scriptures, the Soul is made in the true
Image of this Pure Consciousness. This leads to the following question: then,
why and how does it end up seeing unreal as real? In other words: How does the
Infinite become finite and limited?
The deluded mind (Maya, ignorance, false ego, illusion or conditionings) is like
a mirage. When the mind rests in false ego-sense, the consciousness becomes conditioned
and reflects through the senses, from which arises the illusion of self-limitation
of the consciousness. When thus repeatedly experienced and thought of, the ego-sense
and the illusion of self-limitation acquire a false validity.

Therefore, egoism is but an idea based on a false association of the Soul with
the physical elements. Hence, it does not exist any more than water exists in
the mirage! It only exists is our imperfect vision which is not based on fact.

In the sway of our own ignorance, thus, we become deluded by our own faulty
vision or ideas. Consequently, being attached to the delusion
(Maya), we become unable to apprehend the Reality and mistake impermanent to
be permanent, perishable to be imperishable, fleeting to be stable, fake
to be real, false to be truth, endfull to be endless, unlimited to be limited,
infinite to be finite, sorrows to be joy, material pleasures to be Bliss (Anand),
and so on.

ਪੇਖੁ ਹਰਿਚੰਦਉਰੜੀ ਅਸਥਿਰੁ ਕਿਛੁ ਨਾਹੀ ॥ ਮਾਇਆ ਰੰਗ ਜੇਤੇ ਸੇ ਸੰਗਿ ਨ ਜਾਹੀ ॥: Behold — the world is an illusory castle in the air; nothing here is permanent. The pleasures of Maya, which are many in number, will not go with you (sggs 461).

This is why the scriptures call vanishing pleasures of this material world
to be but a mirage because what gives joy becomes a source of sorrow later.
In other words, the worldly joys are not the source of Eternal Bliss (Anand).
Thereby, all our emotional attachment to worldly objects — children,
wife, mother, father, siblings, relatives, youth, homes, titles, fame,
caste, wealth, comforts, all other possessions, and so on — is also
said to be but a mirage, hence false.

ਜਿਸ ਨੋ ਤੂੰ ਅਸਥਿਰੁ ਕਰਿ ਮਾਨਹਿ ਤੇ ਪਾਹੁਨ ਦੋ ਦਾਹਾ ॥ ਪੁਤ੍ਰ ਕਲਤ੍ਰ ਗ੍ਰਿਹ ਸਗਲ ਸਮਗ੍ਰੀ ਸਭ ਮਿਥਿਆ ਅਸਨਾਹਾ ॥੧॥ ਰੇ ਮਨ ਕਿਆ ਕਰਹਿ ਹੈ ਹਾ ਹਾ ॥ ਦ੍ਰਿਸਟਿ ਦੇਖੁ ਜੈਸੇ ਹਰਿਚੰਦਉਰੀ ਇਕੁ ਰਾਮ ਭਜਨੁ ਲੈ ਲਾਹਾ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਜੈਸੇ ਬਸਤਰ ਦੇਹ ਓਢਾਨੇ ਦਿਨ ਦੋਇ ਚਾਰਿ ਭੋਰਾਹਾ ॥ ਭੀਤਿ ਊਪਰੇ ਕੇਤਕੁ ਧਾਈਐ ਅੰਤਿ ਓਰਕੋ ਆਹਾ ॥੨॥: That which
you believe to be permanent, is a guest here for only a few days. Children,
wives, homes, and all possessions — attachment to all of these is false.||1|| O
mind, why do you burst out laughing? See with your eyes, that these things
are only mirages. So earn the profit of meditation on the One Lord.||1||Pause|| It
is like the clothes which you wear on your body — they wear off in a few days.
How long can you run upon a wall? Ultimately, you come to its end ||2|| (sggs 401-402).

ਮ੍ਰਿਗ ਤ੍ਰਿਸਨਾ ਗੰਧਰਬ ਨਗਰੰ ਦ੍ਰੁਮ ਛਾਯਾ ਰਚਿ ਦੁਰਮਤਿਹ ॥: Misled by the wicked intellect, (mortal) assumes an illusory image of a city, mirage, and the transitory shade of a tree to be real (sggs 1356).

The mirage like world-appearance is also compared with the the transitory shade
of a tree or delusion of the scent-crazed deer searching for musk in the bushes.
Chasing such temporary world is like walking on a wall, which will come to its
end sooner one thinks! Accordingly, the scriptures call the pleasures of worldly
objects as "cheaters", for they hallucinate us and cheat us of our Freedom, Fearlessness
and our Real Nature (Pure Being).

Thus, as emphasized in the scriptures, desire to find true happiness in worldly
objects is only a mirage; all relations are only a mirage; clinging to the notion
of the reality of "I, me, mine, you" is only a mirage; and sensual pleasures
are only a mirage for they are full of sorrows and diseases. In nutshell, we in
this world are all blindfolded with the veil of mirage (Maya, ignorance or ego-sense).

The second aspect of the mirage analogy is to make us aware that Infinite Consciousness
is the Substratum (Adhaar) of everything, without which nothing will exist.
In this regard, the point to note is that the mirage is not the desert and the
desert is not the mirage, yet without the desert the mirage will not exist! Thus,
although the desert is the substratum of the mirage, but the mirage waters can
never wet even a grain of sand! Similarly, if we think that this world of names
and shapes is real, we are mistaken, because this world of plurality cannot exist
without Infinite Consciousness, the Substratum. Its existence is like the mirage
which is unreal; but the world of duality can never affect or contaminate the
Infinite Consciousness as the mirage waters can never wet even a grain of sand!
This is the whole crux of the matter.

ਆਪਹਿ ਰਸ ਭੋਗਨ ਨਿਰਜੋਗ ॥: He Himself
enjoys pleasures, and yet He is unaffected and untouched (sggs 292).

To look at it from an another angle, the creation exists in Pure Awareness just
as the tree exist in seed, liquidity in water, sweetness in sugar, and pungency
in capsicum; but due to the veil of ignorance it appears to be different from
and independent of the Reality. To put it otherwise: just as the waters in the
mirage is and is not simultaneously, even so is plurality in relation to Infinite
Consciousness. Thus, the One Reality has become all. Even as the fire in the painting
does not destroy the canvass it's painted on, the Reality is unaffected by world-appearance.

ਕਉਣੁ ਕਹੈ ਕਿਣਿ ਬੂਝੀਐ ਰਮਈਆ ਆਕੁਲੁ ਰੀ ਬਾਈ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਜਿਉ ਆਕਾਸੈ ਪੰਖੀਅਲੋ ਖੋਜੁ ਨਿਰਖਿਓ ਨ ਜਾਈ ॥ ਜਿਉ ਜਲ ਮਾਝੈ ਮਾਛਲੋ ਮਾਰਗੁ ਪੇਖਣੋ ਨ ਜਾਈ ॥੨॥ ਜਿਉ ਆਕਾਸੈ ਘੜੂਅਲੋ ਮ੍ਰਿਗ ਤ੍ਰਿਸਨਾ ਭਰਿਆ ॥ ਨਾਮੇ ਚੇ ਸੁਆਮੀ ਬੀਠਲੋ ਜਿਨਿ ਤੀਨੈ ਜਰਿਆ ॥੩॥੨॥:
Goojaree Mahalaa 1. Who can describe
Him? Who can understand Him? The all-pervading God has no ancestors, O Siblings
of Destiny.||1||Pause|| As the path of a bird’s flight across the sky cannot be seen. As the path of a fish through the water cannot be seen. ||2|| As the mirage leads one to mistake the sky for a pitcher filled with water ( more we move towards the mirage-water, we never find its limit or end)— so is God, says Naam Dev, who fits these three comparisons (i.e., He cannot be completely described; He is Infinite - His Limits cannot be found; etc.) ||3||2|| (sggs 525).

They who know the Infinite Consciousness as the nameless, formless, and shapeless
substratum of the universe, gain victory over deluded mind and its mirage like
projections; for the ego-mind (Haume) does not exist any more than water
exists in the mirage!

Therefore, the Holy Word urges us to end the illusion which gives us the wrong
notion that the names and shapes are real. With the end of this illusion comes
the end of perception of the diversity and various defects caused by it in our
deluded mind.